


A New Forever

by hyacintholuscos



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Carmilla Extended Universe, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-10
Updated: 2015-03-10
Packaged: 2018-03-17 01:39:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3510368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyacintholuscos/pseuds/hyacintholuscos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carmilla and Laura have been married nearly two years, and the years they have been together seem to be taking their toll on Laura more than either of them had thought about at 19.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A New Forever

Carmilla sat behind her desk, staring at the paper from one of her students and rubbing her temples, trying to fight the urge to just start banging her head on the desk. She had been reading these things for two hours, and she knew she still had hours of work ahead of her before she would be done.

She played with her wedding band, sliding it around her finger with her thumb. Their anniversary was coming up soon, and she still hadn’t figured out what she was going to do to celebrate. She wanted to do something big; she knew that Laura was feeling tired lately, and they weren’t really getting much time to just  _be_ with each other.

But she really knew what had Laura feeling off: it had been 8 years since they had first started dating, eight years of Laura aging while Carmilla stayed young, unchanging. And she was getting self-conscious about it.

Carmilla laid her head down on her desk, trying to let the muscles that were tensed in her shoulders relax. She told Laura,  _showed_ Laura all of the time how beautiful she was, how much Carmilla adored her. She showed her that she didn’t mind it at all, that she had no intention of going anywhere. But she couldn’t stop those voices in Laura’s mind, hard as she tried. And Laura avoided the topic any time it looked like Carmilla was going to bring it up.

Her phone rang, and she jerked up, realizing she had been almost falling asleep. She picked it up quickly.  ”Professor Karnstein,” she answered a little sharply.

"Professor Karnstein?" LaF’s voice on the phone sounded like they were grinning. "Wow, very formal for an old school friend, isn’t it?"

"An old school friend calling my office at," she checked the clock on her desk, "5 in the evening. What’s up, nerd?"

"I was thinking you and I could meet up tonight to talk about something. It would just be a quick chat." Carmilla knew that Laura was working late tonight, so she would have just been going home to the empty house.

"Sure. Tell me where and when?"

"My lab, in half an hour?"

Carmilla frowned. “Your lab?”

"The one I use on campus for the class I’ve been teaching this semester."

"No, I know which one you were talking about. Why do you want me to meet you at your lab?"

"Because you’re going to want to meet me here," they answered, and Carmilla could tell they had one of those huge grins on their face.

Carmilla was tempted to keep pushing the issue, but she knew them well enough by now; if they had a secret and they were waiting for something, they weren’t going to tell her  _anything_ until it was time.

"Okay, I’ll be there," she answered, and she heard some kind of shuffling on the other end of the line. "If you’re doing a victory dance right now, though, I’m not going anywhere near you."

It took LaF a moment to answer. “I wasn’t,” they said, their tone unconvincing. Carmilla laughed.

"See you later, nerd."

"Later," they answered, hanging up. Once Carmilla set her phone back on its receiver she studied it. LaF had been working on something big, from what Perry had told her last week, when she had gone over with a bottle of wine to chat. Something that meant a lot of late nights for the last month and a half, and lots of LaF running off to write something down in the middle of one of their meals.

"If it were anyone but LaFontaine," Perry had said with a worried frown on her face, and a hopeful look to Carmilla.

Carmilla knew LaF would never do that, and had told Perry as much. “LaFontaine is so in love with you, they don’t even actually  _see_ other people. They don’t recognize them as anything but as a friend, and most of the time, they don’t even recognize anyone enough for  _that.”_

But maybe she was going to be able to give Perry some clarification after tonight?

Carmilla cleaned up her desk as much as she could (she really did need to finish grading all of these papers, but they would still be there this weekend, while Laura was off on another assignment for the newspaper), and started off across campus to the Bio labs.

LaFontaine was standing anxiously outside of the labs, practically bouncing, every few seconds running a hand through their hair and their eyes darting around, trying to catch her. Carmilla stepped forward and raised her hand in greeting, and saw them become, unbelievably, even  _more_ tense, whether it was from anxiety or excitement she wasn’t sure.

"Hey, Carmilla. Come on in," they said, pulling the door open and grinning. Carmilla paused, careful.

"Why don’t you tell me what’s going on, LaF?"

"I will, I promise. But in the lab." Carmilla looked around, feeling suspicious, although (after that unfortunate trapping and starvation diet thing back in college) LaFontaine had never done anything to show that they meant anything but good for her.

They seemed to sense her hesitation, and stepped closer, lowering their voice. “Carmilla, you can trust me, okay? I think you’re going to like all of what I am going to tell you, but I know no one else here knows about…  _that.”_

Carmilla looked at them, and she could see genuine concern for her in their eyes. They were her friend. She didn’t need to be afraid. She stepped into the lab and sat on a stool by their desk while they locked the door.

"Okay, so you remember how we were talking a while back about trying to understand your vampirism? You had told me about how it gave you immunity from basically any disease and everything, and you let me take some of your blood?"

Carmilla nodded as they sat down in the chair in front of their computer, and they logged into it. A picture of them and Perry on their wedding day popped up first, and she saw them smile as they took a second to look at it before they pulled up whatever they had to show her.

"Well, while I was looking at that, I was also thinking: what if we could replicate it? I mean, give immortality to the masses? So I was looking at it on the bio-engineering side of things, but I realized that that could be  _very_ bad in the wrong hands.” The ice that had settled in Carmilla’s chest at the idea of it being replicated released. LaFontaine was at least one of the scientists who realized that just because they might be able to do something didn’t mean that they  _should._ It had been the only reason she had trusted them with a vial of her blood.

"So, then, I started thinking of something else. What if I could  _reverse_ it? What if I could make you human again?” Carmilla forgot to breathe then. Years ago, more years ago than she cared to think about, she had hoped for a way to reverse it, a way for her to be able to lead a  _normal_ human life.

When she had fallen in love with Laura, when she had defeated her mother and Lophiiformes, when she had started to actually build a life with Laura, the hope had been re-opened, but all of her research had been for nothing.

Everything she could find about vampirism that wasn’t just built around Dracula, made it very clear: the only way to  _not_ be a vampire after becoming one was to die. And she couldn’t do that to Laura. Laura still woke up from nightmares in the middle of the night that were centered around the time when she had been certain that Carmilla had been dead.

"It took me forever, because I had to figure out how it had changed you on a cellular level, and if it was a parasite or a virus or what. Then there were the tests of trying to remove those genes and  _not_ kill you. That was the hardest part, by the way,” LaFontaine added, looking at her. “If the rest of the cells died, the vampire cells died. But considering keeping you  _alive_ is the whole point of trying, I had to work out how to target specifically the vampire cells, which involved a lot of-“

"LaF, normally I would be all for you sitting here and explaining everything to me in as much detail as possible, and you can explain it all to me later if you want, but please," Carmilla heard her voice quaver, and she stopped, swallowing, wiping hands that were suddenly sweaty on her slacks. "Are you saying you can reverse it?"

LaFontaine paused, and then they smiled. “I think I can. Here, let me show you in the microscope, okay? I’ve tested this out on about 50 different samples, but I want you to see it.” They pulled up the view from their microscope that they had next to them, and they set a petri dish that looked clear, but when it slid under the lens, she could see cells moving around on the screen. LaFontaine went to a cabinet and grabbed a sealed plastic test tube and pipette (she suddenly thanked God that she had paid attention in a few of her science classes long enough to know the names of a lot of the items LaF used regularly).

"Okay, so on the screen, you can see the super round cells, but then do you see those kind of… barbed looking ones?" Carmilla looked, and she could spot the difference almost immediately. While a lot of the cells were very normal, round looking, there were these almost angular looking ones that had what looked like jagged spears sticking out from them. She nodded. "The round cells are  _your_ cells, Carmilla Karnstein pre-vampire. The barbed ones are the vampiric cells.” They used the pipette to take some of the liquid out of the test tube before sealing it up again, then they shot her a look. “Watch.”

Carmilla studied the screen as they dropped the liquid into the petri dish, and waited almost half a minute before she noticed a difference. She leaned in closer.

The cells had all been moving around, originally, the barbed ones moving a little slower, now they had stopped moving completely and they were… breaking down?

"What’s happening?" she asked LaFontaine.

LaF looked at her. “I figured out a way to target those cells. And yeah, the process is super complicated, and I’m pretty sure you don’t want to spend the next four hours hearing an explanation, but basically, from what I’ve been able to do to the samples, I think I can reverse it without killing you.”

Carmilla, who had been filled with hope just a moment before, felt a sourness fill her stomach.

"Think?"

They nodded. “ _Think._ I’m about 97% certain that this will work  _exactly_ how it looks here. But you will get really sick, and you will be  _really_ weak for a while, because about an eighth of your blood cells are actually these vampiric cells. Not to mention, you’re going to need to start getting vaccinated ASAP for  _everything._ You’ve got years to make up for, in order to keep yourself from getting sick with something that the rest of us have been vaccinated against already. And the thing is… well, it’s  _very_ experimental, and there’s really no way for me to test it.”

"Except to just try it," Carmilla finished. She thought about it, thought about the possibility.

"If we were to try this," she said, looking at them. "How soon after would we know if I’m going to survive it?"

LaF shrugged. “I would guess it would take a week, maybe two, for all of the cells to be destroyed. After that, maybe another two weeks before you would feel more like yourself again. But everything about being a vampire would be gone. No shape-shifting, no drinking blood, you would be human.”

"Or I’d be dead."

"I thought about that. I wanted to let you know we have this option. I also have," they said, pulling another test tube out of their pocket, "this, in case it doesn’t work. It’s enough of the vampiric cells to bring you back again, if I fail. I don’t plan on failing, though. I waited to tell you about this until  _every_ test showed success, but lacking another vampire to test on, I can only be so certain.”

"Why not tell Laura?"

"Because you and I both know what Laura would say right now," they responded, and Carmilla had to admit they were right. Laura would think it was too dangerous, that there wasn’t enough certainty for Carmilla to risk her life.

But Carmilla had thought about it a lot over the last eight years. She had thought about the idea of eternity without Laura, and the ache inside of her at even the suggestion was enough to let her know she wouldn’t want it. She wanted to share as close to a normal life as she could with Laura.

And this might be her only shot.

"When?"

LaFontaine grinned. “I want to have you in a hospital when we do this, and I am guessing you don’t want Laura to be worrying about it, but she’s going on that long trip starting this weekend, and that would give us plenty of time to see how you react. So, Friday night?”

Carmilla looked at them, and she tried to gauge their certainty. They seemed confident. They  _were_ confident, she knew, and she knew they wouldn’t risk her life unless they knew they could fix it.

And if she was gone…. well, at least she wouldn’t have to live an eternity without Laura ever, would she?

"Friday night. If you’ll come by my office right after classes end, since I can at least do some grading while we’re waiting to see how I’m handling it all."

"Perfect." LaFontaine seemed to sense her uncertainty, and they fixed her with a lopsided grin. "Hey, I promise you,  _this is going to work._ And if it doesn’t, I’m not giving up on finding a way to do this for you.”

"Don’t you mean for Laura?"

"No, I mean  _you,_ Karnstein. Laura’s not the only person around here who likes you for you, you know. Even Perry likes you. A lot. So, as your  _friend,_ I want to do this for you. I know it’s something you’ve thought about. You get this really sad look you try to cover up whenever we celebrate birthdays.”

Carmilla actually was surprised; she had thought that her friendship with LaFontaine had been built entirely on their friendship with Laura. To hear them say that they liked her for her was enough to make her feel like crying.

Lacking words right then, she reached out and hugged them. “Thanks, LaFontaine. This means… so much.”

LaFontaine smiled and hugged her back. “I know. So, Friday night, after your last class, I’ll come by and we’ll bring you enough work to last for a bit.”

Carmilla pulled away. “Okay.”

****

Laura was ready to jump out of her skin if one more person got in her way as she tried to get home to Carmilla. It had been two weeks, and Carmilla’s last text had her worried.

_You want to get home right now, cupcake. Don’t stop for anything, just get home._

She had tried calling her after, but either Carmilla wasn’t able to answer her phone, or she wasn’t near enough to her phone to actually answer. Either way, she wasn’t helping Laura feel better.

Laura was pretty sure she broke at least five traffic laws as she drove from the airport, but she was lucky and had no cops see her doing it. Carmilla’s car was parked in the driveway, and the lights on their porch were on. She didn’t bother grabbing her suitcase from the car, barely even paused to make sure that the car was locked before she was in the house.

"Carm?" she called out, and Carmilla walked to the edge of the living room and leaned against the wall, smiling. There were dark circles under her eyes, and Laura studied her.

"Hey, Laura." Carmilla’s voice was soft and tired. Laura walked up to her, looking over every inch of her. She hadn’t looked this bad since they had rescued her from the pit.

"Hey." Laura gave her a soft kiss, and stepped back, watching her again. "Is everything okay?"

"Everything’s fine, cupcake. I just felt a little under the weather while you were gone. Nothing to worry about. I had Perry and LaFontaine taking care of me."

"You? Sick? I thought you said you had immunity to… well, everything." Laura felt her stomach vanish. "Oh God, it wasn’t some sort of vampires only illness was it?"

"Laura, please breathe," Carmilla said, touching her cheek and smiling, some tears in her eyes. "I’m  _fine._ In fact, I’m better than fine. I’m great.” Carmilla grabbed her hand and pulled her into the living room and down onto the couch, sitting so that they were facing each other.

Laura was still freaking out, of course. What would have made Carmilla sick? Was there some sort of disease that vampires could catch that humans couldn’t? Or what if it was something she caught in her cat form? What if there was some sort of cat illness that she kept in her human form and couldn’t recover from because she was a vampire?

 _"Cupcake."_ Laura felt herself getting jolted back and realized Carmilla had been talking to her. “LaFontaine and I did something while you were gone. We wanted to make sure it was going to work before we told you.” Carmilla grabbed both of her hands, brought them up to her lips, and kissed them tenderly. “How would you feel about spending the rest of  _our_ lives together?”

"I’m already spending my life with you," Laura said, her eyebrows drawing together.

"I know that. What I’m talking about is spending the rest of  _my_ life with you, too.” Carmilla smiled as the confusion deepened in Laura’s eyes. “I’m human, Laura. My forever is the same as yours. I’m going to age, and I’m going to be able to have a  _normal_ life with you.”

It finally registered, then. Laura was in such a state of shock over it, she just sat there, but Carmilla could see her realize what it meant. Carmilla smiled and nodded when Laura’s eyes asked if she was serious.

"That means… that means you’re going to die," Laura finally said, looking like her heart was going to break.

"Not for years, cupcake. As for those years: they’re yours. Every one I have." It seemed to be then that Laura caught everything else that was being said.

"You’re  _human._ No more blood, no more shape-shifting, and you’re going to grow old and… it’s normal?”

"It’s normal, Laura. A normal life. Ju-" Carmilla didn’t have time to say anything else because Laura was crushing her in a one-armed hug, and kissing her harder than Carmilla had ever realized she could actually kiss before. She felt Laura’s fingers tangling in her hair as she pulled her as close as she could. When she finally pulled back from the kiss (and gave Carmilla a chance to breathe), they leaned their foreheads together.

"You’re giving up forever for me," Laura breathed, pulling away and looking at Carmilla with the same look she had given when Carmilla had been alive after being pulled from the pit. Carmilla smiled and kissed her again.

"Okay, stop all of this, before I get queasy. I’m  _gaining_ forever  _with_ you. I’m not giving up anything.”


End file.
